Apple Mac Mini

[gambiting]

I seriously do not understand how can it ship with a 500GB 5400rpm drive by default. This gives such poor experience to the user that Apple should have opted for all-ssd approach two generations ago. Very disappointed by that.

[rcchen]

So correct me if I'm wrong, but they appear to have done the same thing with the Mac Mini to achieve the lower price point as they did with the iMac earlier this year, by introducing a 1.4Ghz i5 model? I don't recall the base Mac Mini being as weak before...

[lvillani]

Looks like they took the same CPU used in the MacBook Air. Assuming I got the models right and the benchmark is accurate [0] it doesn't look like you are loosing too much in the end...

[0]: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=2238&cmp[]=815

[swinglock]

Correct. Yesterday a the entry Mac Mini was $599 and had a 2.5GHz dual-core i5 with 4GB of RAM.

[drzaiusapelord]

Wow, that's quite the downgrade. What's the logic here? To save energy to keep it fanless? Or is this cost-cutting?

[Synaesthesia]

1.4ghz is the base clock speed, but it can clock up to turbo frequencies of 2.7ghz. I don't know why Apple doesn't use that figure instead.

[ddod]

I've been waiting for about a year for this refresh and fully expected to buy one today, but after looking at the combination of price, default HDD, processors, and very weak integrated graphics, I just can't justify buying this. Compared to the relationship between the 2012 Mini and the 2012 computing ecosystem, the 2014 Mini is really not that impressive.

[christoph]

I don't really understand Apple's current obsession with fitting their machines with low-end GFX. I get that it increases battery life, but let me make the choice between high-end GFX/poor battery life & low-end GFX/great battery life (at least as an option).

A top end Macbook Pro retina really should be capable of sporting a top end 8x series Nvidia as a minimum. In fact a 9x nVidia refresh with 40% the current battery would probably make me drop the cash for another one (I only bought a new Macbook about 3 months ago). I want "this" physical hardware, but with a nice GPU so I can demo things like the Rift DK2 on the road without hulking around another PC laptop just for "those moments". The current Macbook Pro just isn't cut out for modern day 3D like a cheap(ish) MSI stealth Pro is...Trust me Apple... I'll find a power outlet if I need it.

As an aside, it's still the best laptop I've ever owned.

[jrochkind1]

Not a bad price until you see it costs $300 to go from 4GB RAM to 16GB RAM.

Do these have user-upgradeable RAM? I can buy RAM a lot cheaper than that.

[personZ]

It looks like the physical design is the same as the late 2012, which on mine has a screw top "bottom" (until moments ago I had it upside down...always thinking that screen top was the top) that reveals a couple of so-dimm ports.

I am extremely surprised they didn't go Broadwell given that Intel is just starting to put those out in volume.

[cherry_su]

Yes. Tech specs do not say "onboard memory." http://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs/

[xngzng]

I just chatted with Apple Store staff. The RAM is NOT user-upgradeable.

"With the new type of ram, this is so small that we need to solder it to the logic board. So it is not user replaceable any longer. We can only offer upgrade at the point of purchase"

The PICe SSD storage is also soldiered onto the machine.

[smackfu]

This page makes it a bit unclear: http://store.apple.com/us/buy-mac/mac-mini

4GB of 1600MHz LPDDR3 memory

Configurable to 8GB or 16GB, only at the Apple Online Store.

[tmuir]

Yep. $152

http://www.amazon.com/Patriot-Series-204-Pin-SO-DIMM-PSA316G...

[rudedogg]

I just asked support and they say it is not user upgradeable, and to add RAM at purchase time if you'll need it.

[dorian-graph]

All previous Minis had user-upgradeable HDD too. I use a Mac mini with 16gb RAM and an SSD I've put in myself.

[LeoNatan25]

You can upgrade the RAM.

[stock_toaster]

BTO option is now a dual core i7 (3Ghz), vs previous model's BTO option of a quad core i7 (2.3Ghz).

I wonder what the performance difference is between the two.

[Luc]

BTO: Built To Order

[karpodiem]

which is totally insane.

Yes, let's alienate the group of people who build 3rd party software and want a reasonably priced headless mac, and user upgradeable memory/HDD. Idiots.

$100+ billion in cash or marketable securities and total spite for the dev/performance market. Just blind arrogance at this point - 'we don't need to offer this option anymore'

[sauere]

The $699 model + the SSD upgrade sums up to a whooping $899.

I like the form-faktor and all, but really, with 900 bucks i am sticking to my custom ITX builds

[cjensen]

Yes, that's long been the obvious stupidity in Apple's Mac line: the lack of a mini-tower. Mini-towers let you stick in a full power desktop CPU and as much disk space as you want.

Moreover, they dropped the expandable Mac Pro in favor of the new trashcan model which cannot be expanded -- except using thunderbolt which is just not as cheap as a drive bay.

That said, they're probably doing the right thing. The people who want the ITX build are hackers like us, and we just aren't that common.

[thinkr]

Kind of off topic, but I just purchased a used Mac Mini (2012 model i5 2.5Ghz) that the previous owner upgraded to 16GB for $575.

When I first heard they announced the new Mac Mini today I was worried that I should have waited, but it looks like in the end I got a great deal since there doesn't seem to be a huge performance boost. I only plan to use it for iOS development purposes.

[nodata]

Show us some of your builds!

[eyeareque]

Do you know of any good ITX hackintosh howto writeups? I might go that route too as I want small form factor and OSX, but do not want to pay an apple tax (even if their case is way prettier).

[dankohn1]

This is a credible answer for our new default developer machine, now that it has 2 Thunderbolt ports, but it doesn't seem cheap enough. We want dual 27" 2560 x 1440 displays, 16 GB of RAM and a 1 TB fusion drive. This is for Rails development, so we're not taxing the CPU or GPU, although we do run parallel_rspec and parallel_cucumber, so more cores are helpful.

The 27" iMac is $2199 + $399 for this Monoprice monitor w/ DisplayPort <http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=113&cp_id=11307&cs_id=..., for a total of $2598. This has a 3.2GHz i5 and NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M 1GB GDDR5.

The new Mac Mini with 3 GHz i7, 16 GB RAM, 1 TB fusion drive, keyboard and trackpad is $1537 + 2 x $399 for the monitors = $2335.

I'm not convinced saving $263 is worth going from 4 cores to 2, and presumably a worse graphics card.

[SloopJon]

No quad-core models?

[jimmcslim]

Despite the HDMI port and 2xThunderbolt ports, still maxes out at two monitors rather than three... guess Iris Pro would have been required for triple-head support.

[xngzng]

Any idea if the harddisk is user upgradeable?

[mjcohen]

Has the mini server gone away? I don't see it mentioned.

[jamie_ca]

The server features are available on the app store now (IIRC it's $20).

The model with two distinct disks looks gone now, though.

[smackfu]

Probably a bad sign that this 404s: https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/server/

[digitalsushi]

Hi folks. I am not a hardware nerd at heart. It appears this 'iris' GPU will not be able to do 4k display. Does anyone confirm?

[MHordecki]

Iris (such like the one in 13" rMBP) can't, Iris Pro (15" rMBP) can.

[Xeoncross]

The HDMI has "Support for 4096-by-2160 resolution at 24Hz" - http://store.apple.com/us/buy-mac/mac-mini

Still only 1080p at 60Hz

[UVB-76]

Tech specs suggest both the Intel Iris and Intel HD Graphics 5000 models have the same support for 4K:

https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs/

[frandroid]

It better be able to do 5K, since the Thunderbolt will inevitably be upgraded to the same screen the new Retina iMac comes with...

[zador]

According to Intel site, looks like it can do 4k.

[SeanLuke]

So they got rid of the 2 1TB drive option? Essentially the maximum internal storage on the Mini has been cut in half?

[mwcampbell]

Now I wish I hadn't bought a new Mac mini 6 months ago. But I really needed one then. In any case, I applaud the switch to ULV processors (like those found in ultrabooks or the MacBook Air). Anyone know if this generation of Mac mini has a fan in it? I have a serious fanless fetish.

[milhous]

A disappointing update, but would still consider it to replace my mid 2010 Core2Duo mini if the Thunderbolt ports supported Multistream Transport (MST) so I could daisychain 3 x Dell U2415 19x12 displays.

[post_break]

The Mac mini when first introduced was $499.

[paul9290]

Mac Minis have been great entertainment boxes for me!

Hook them up to a LCD TV, use a wireless mouse and enjoy tons of free content on Hulu, YouTube, Justin.TV substitutes and others!

[lokeshk]

I'm slightly bummed that I can't get SSD on their starting model, and have to force myself to a fusion drive if I want to do better than hard drive.

[srcmap]

It is fairly easy to swap out the sata HDD with a sata SSD, right?

[Shivetya]

taking real offense that to get the option to have more than 256g SSD you have to buy the 999; top level; mini first? You cannot even buy a SSD on the 499 entry model, you first have to step up to the 699.

Really Apple. I was looking forward to new SSD minis for the parents, but 699+200 is a bit a much.

[smackfu]

Also realize that the Fusion Drive price includes $50 to upgrade from 500 GB to 1 TB drive. Which is like a $20 part difference.

[chrismeller]

Did I miss something, or does maxing out the CPU and the RAM on the mid-level model get you the same specs as a maxed-out high-end model for $200 cheaper?